fate is (in)evitable
by Xephonia
Summary: Now Nasch is the last one alive. (set in canonverse, past life)


_Unsettling._

Nasch's heart is beating fast, and he's kind of surprised it's still beating at all, and all he hears are Vector's screams.

Frankly, Nasch is used to the supernatural.

He is used to Merag's ever-returning visions, her link to the realm of the dead, her knowledge of his fate.

(He is aware that she might have known it would come to this.)

Seeing the spirits of the dead so violent is still unsettling.

He's seen spirits before, too.

Turning to red light, all but absorbed by the crimson sky.

For spirits to be resentful enough to reject salvation and stay in this place, just to be able to drag Vector down to hell where he belongs—

They aren't much different from Nasch himself, given how he chased Vector to the ends of earth and beyond.

Nasch feels like a living corpse at this point.

 _What meaning does my existence have when everything I fought to protect is gone?_

* * *

Vector looks different when the life leaves his eyes, and Nasch could swear that for a split-second, there's a smile on Vector's face.

Nasch's body moves on its own when he picks up Vector's body, slowly closes Vector's eyes and carries him outside. It's just Vector— his body— and Nasch now.

The spirits stay where they are, bound to the palace where they come from.

Nasch wonders why he isn't haunted— having just as many deaths to his name as Vector— but for sure it's Merag's spirit watching over him.

(That's the only way to explain Iris' existence.)

In the United Lands of the Poseidon Ocean, it's tradition to bury royalty with flowers. Soldiers are returned to the ocean, so their sins are returned to where they were committed.

He doesn't know how it is for Vector's country.

(Doesn't care enough, either.)

But Nasch is above disrespecting the dead, no matter who they are, so he carries Vector's body to the shore, taking a few flowers - they look a lot like the flowers that Nasch's kingdom uses for funerals - along as he does.

There are no wounds.

In a way, Nasch wonders what Vector would do if he was still alive.

 _Would you keep trying to win? Would you choose death over humiliation?_

Vector is a wild card when it comes to that.

Slowly, he puts the flowers in Vector's hands and places them on his chest.

"Farewell."

He unsheathes Vector's sword before offering him to the waves.

* * *

Nasch can't actually return home, anymore.

 _Is there even a home without Merag?_

He's not capable of steering a ship on his own, and the one he used to come to this place only dropped him off because he's a king.

Or used to be.

He's already turned the kingdom over to the remaining distant relatives he has.

 _I'm not fit to lead anyone, anymore._

So Nasch walks along the shore, Vector's sword in hand because he lost his own and he can't tell where and he isn't going back to that haunted place.

(Nasch heard that Durbe was buried in his home country. His kind heart was what got him killed.)

 _Fate is ironic, leaving me alive like this._

A few months ago, he would've went after whoever killed Durbe.

But he knows better now.

He's not sure what fate has in store for him at this point, but he doesn't want to be part of it.

 _If there's an afterlife, I hope you're safe there, Merag._

This is the first time Nasch kills someone with his own hands. It's different from just causing death everywhere he goes; different from being unable to protect someone.

It's a conscious decision.

 _I'm taking my fate into my own hands._

He looks at the stars once more.

His namesake is watching over him as always, bright regardless of how many deaths followed Nasch's never-ending series of bad decisions.

There was one night where Nasch had looked up the meaning of his star.

Benetnasch, king of the mourners.

 _How true that turned out to be._

He feels his hands trembling with Vector's sword in them.

He breathes in deeply and works past his body's resistance against what he is about to do—

* * *

Crimson sky.

Nasch looks out for the stars, but Barian World doesn't have any.

 _Why would it have any?_

"What are you looking for?" Grey hair, violet eyes, black wings. The guy doesn't attempt to help Nasch up.

"—Vector?"

"Nasch?"

They stare for a bit; then, simultaneously—

"How do you know my name?"


End file.
